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Movers & shakers – The Daily Deal

June 29, 2010 The Daily Deal

A Merrill Lynch & Co. veteran wants to cash in on the gold craze. Colbert Narcisse (pictured), who spent 17 years at Merrill, launched New York-based Gold Bullion International LLC, a business services company that enables investors to acquire, manage and store physical precious metals, including gold, silver, platinum and palladium. The company said it makes acquiring precious metals cost-effective and as seamless as purchasing a stock or bond.

Narcisse, CEO of the company, previously worked in investment banking and global wealth management at Merrill. During his time there, he had been an investment banker in the financial institutions group; chief operating officer for investment banking, Americas; and COO of global wealth management.

Savneet Singh is a founder and chief operating officer of GBI. He was an investment analyst at Chilton Investment Co., covering technology, alternative energy and infrastructure investments. Prior to that, Singh was at Morgan Stanley in the investment banking division, working on financial sponsor and strategic company transactions. The advisory board includes retired U.S. Army general Wesley Clark, former House Majority Leader Richard Gephardt, Tocqueville Gold Fund portfolio manager John Hathaway and former Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Arthur Levitt.

Gold Bullion International investment services company (GBI is New York-based) was launched on June 25 for retail investors to buy bullion. In the U.S., sovereign inflation concerns (confidence in financial issues) have made investments in physical gold increasingly popular. GBI developed a system that one can easily trade bullion like stocks and bonds, and will expand to retail investors through financial advisors. Typically, individual investors seeking to invest money in gold use ETFs (exchange-traded fund) in many cases to buy “physical demand.” Purchases are expected remain strong, gold is said to be USD 600 billion total ETF (exchange-traded fund) and aims to capture individual investors to invest in the market.

The company’s chief executive officer (CEO), the former U.S. investment banking chief operating officer of Merrill Lynch (COO), Colbert Narcisse said a target customer will hold more than $250,000 dollars in investment accounts. Until now, gold investment has been limited to the wealthy with some of the costs and procedures of storage and insurance, and quality certification being cumbersome “to change the general investment products like mutual funds” (Narcisse CEO) said. Gold ETF investment is set to cost about the same from the company’s investor partners, London Bullion Market Association and the destination storage in New York was chosen for one of the storage systems. “Buy gold bars and 10 percent of the cost of personal, institutional investors 1% would suffice. We can offer to individual investors and institutional investors buy low-cost average,” he said.

The company was established last May in emerging companies. Arthur Levitt, former chairman to the SEC (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission) and former congressman Gephardt have been appointed as Advisory Board members.